1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates generally to food products.
More particularly, the invention relates to sandwich products in the form of shaped-potato product provided as a sandwich garnish or as a sandwich focal point, and sandwiches made with such products.
2. Description of Prior Art
Sandwiches of all kinds, both hot and cold, are popular food products in our society. For example, many individuals enjoy the taste of french fries on a hot sandwich such as a hamburger. The common method to achieve such culinary delight is to place a pile of french fries in the sandwich, and then mash the fries to maintain the fries in position while eating the sandwich. However, there are certain drawbacks and disadvantages to this scenario. A diner will need to purchase or prepare an order of french fries, even if he or she does not want additional french fries with the sandwich. And the process can be generally messy, requiring the diner to open the sandwich, balance the french fries on the sandwich until the top piece of bread is returned into position, and mash the bread in order to set and hold the position of the fries in the sandwich.
A pre-made french fry potato sandwich garnish and the sandwich made therewith a would help to eliminate these drawbacks and disadvantages, and would provide the diner with an easy to handle, unique sandwich, thus satisfying an ever-present demand for related culinary innovations. However, a pre-made french fry potato garnish specially adapted for use with sandwiches is currently not known or available.
One prior fried shaped-potato sandwich product that suggests elimination of the need to place a pile of french fries on a sandwich in order to achieve the french fry sandwich experience is illustrated in Pak et al., U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,765,998, 4,879,125 and 4,919,946. Briefly, these patents show an edible food bowl that the patents indicate may be made with a fried potato composition, and that is placed in a sandwich to hold additional sandwich ingredients. However, use of this bowl without additional ingredients is not suggested in these patents, nor would such use be practical or desirable from a culinary standpoint as it would result in the diner eating an empty bowl that is positioned in the sandwich.
In addition, many health conscious individuals are reducing their consumption of meat, particularly red meat. As a result, there has been a rise in the production of meat substitute products such as in the form of burgers made from vegetable products. Soy is the most common meat substitute from which focal-point sandwich products are currently made. Soy-based products, however, tend to suffer from the presence of a distinctive, generally non-pleasing soy odor and taste. Soy is also well known to be used as a low cost extender in ground meat and shredded meat products. These and other factors have contributed to limited acceptance of sandwiches made with soy-based products as a meat substitute in a sandwich. Consequently, there is also a need for a new meat substitute product and sandwich made therewith that does not suffer from the disadvantages of soy-based sandwich products.